Because You Loved Me
by Gaelcelt
Summary: Steve/Bucky slash. Songfiction. Steve and Bucky have been everything for each other. Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me"


None of these characters are mine.

Steve/Bucky slash. Songfiction. Steve and Bucky have been everything for each other. Celine Dion's song "Because You Loved Me" might as well be their song; friends or sweethearts, they clearly love each other.

Because You Loved Me

Steve still could not believe that Bucky would ever _consider_ the possibility that Steve would abandon him after he had acquired the muscles and superpowers that he now held as Captain America. In his mind, they were still those two boys toughing it out in the streets of Brooklyn. After all the times that Bucky had come to his defense when some oafish bully beat Steve up in some alley when he was still this asthmatic but plucky little invalid, before he volunteered to test the serum.

And his desire to test the serum and as a result join the army, it was all because he wanted to be with Bucky. The one who knew him by heart and who Steve knew just as deeply.

_For all those times you stood by me  
For all the truth that you made me see  
For all the joy you brought to my life  
For all the wrong that you made right  
For every dream you made come true  
For all the love I found in you  
I'll be forever thankful baby  
You're the one who held me up  
Never let me fall  
You're the one who saw me through, through it all_

Steve reassured Bucky many times over in the weeks after he had rescued him from Zola's laboratory that he could never forsake him. How could he say "goodbye" after they had grown up together? After all that they had been through together?

"Bucky, I might be able to defend myself now, but how is that a good enough reason to just drop you like that?"

"You say that Muscle Man, but how do I know that for sure?" Bucky was half teasing, still somewhat afraid that Steve could potentially drop him.

Steve closed the gap between them with a gentle but urgent kiss, "Does that feel like I'm going to leave you, jerk?"

"Punk," Bucky smiled fondly as he eyed Steve.

_You were my strength when I was weak  
You were my voice when I couldn't speak  
You were my eyes when I couldn't see  
You saw the best there was in me  
Lifted me up when I couldn't reach  
You gave me faith 'cause you believed  
I'm everything I am  
Because you loved me_

The Winter Soldier snarled and spat at Steve from behind the bars of the cell. Steve knew that Bucky was somewhere inside him, but how could he reach him?

It hurt so much to know that Bucky had suffered so much over seventy years. Although he still blamed himself on some level, he knew now that he could not have forseen what would happen that horrible day on the train. Taking his heart into his hands again, he continued trying any method that the psychiatrists suggested.

Days, weeks went by. Steve was exhausted, he felt numb inside, but he refused to surrender. Only the love that he still held for Bucky made Steve keep trying to reach him.

However gradual that the process was, however small that every improvement seemed, Pepper urged Steve to celebrate those successes. He could not be more grateful for the help of the Avengers; he had not been sure of what they would think of his love for Bucky, as he had come from a time that derided and abused men like him and Bucky, but to his surprise the Avengers could not have been more supportive.

Soon, it became clear just how much that Steve's tenacity had paid. Bucky's spiky humor was returning and he actually smiled. He was even allowed out of the cell to visit with Steve when he began to eagerly await Steve's visits.

Bucky practically ran to Steve when the guards released him. Steve caught him and they soon found themselves laughing and crying for sheer joy.

"You're back…!" Steve squeaked as he kissed Bucky's cheek, fluffing his hair.

_You gave me wings and made me fly  
You touched my hand I could touch the sky  
I lost my faith, you gave it back to me  
You said no star was out of reach  
You stood by me and I stood tall  
I had your love I had it all  
I'm grateful for each day you gave me  
Maybe I don't know that much  
But I know this much is true  
I was blessed because I was loved by you_

You were my strength when I was weak  
You were my voice when I couldn't speak  
You were my eyes when I couldn't see  
You saw the best there was in me  
Lifted me up when I couldn't reach  
You gave me faith 'cause you believed  
I'm everything I am  
Because you loved me

Steve wept as he held Bucky late at night after Bucky's night terrors. But, as tired as he was, Steve could not complain. He had gone for too long without holding him.

"How do you put up with this, Steve?" Bucky's voice was husky and his face streaked with tears as he buried his face against a sinewy shoulder, clinging desperately to his lover as he trembled, "How do you put up with me when I'm like this?"

"Because I love you, jerk," Steve kissed his brow, "Because I've gone seventy-something years without you and I never want to lose you again… it hurts so much to know that I could have saved you that day on the train, spared you from all of this… but I have you again. I love you, soldier."

Bucky smiled meekly as he kissed Steve's naked shoulder, "You saved me from the Nazis, once. And now you've saved me again from Soviet orders… the first time, I thought that you were an angel, and now that you've saved me again I know that you are."

Steve glowed, fluffing Bucky's rumpled hair.

"I still can't believe that you've done what you've done for me," Bucky murmured.

"I did it because you did the same for me. You always stood up for me and made sure that you would be there for me. You were my friend…" Steve's voice caught in a shuddering sob as he remembered those years, smiling at the memory as tears rolled down his cheeks, "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. I almost lost you and I love you all the more for it."

"I love you too, babe," Bucky squeezed him harder as they lay together. The late hour was nothing to them now. They had each other. After all this time, they had each other.

_You were always there for me  
The tender wind that carried me  
The light in the dark shining your love into my life  
You've been my inspiration  
Through the lies you were the truth  
My world is a better place because of you_

You were my strength when I was weak  
You were my voice when I couldn't speak  
You were my eyes when I couldn't see  
You saw the best there was in me  
Lifted me up when I couldn't reach  
You gave me faith 'cause you believed  
I'm everything I am  
Because you loved me

You were my strength when I was weak  
You were my voice when I couldn't speak  
You were my eyes when I couldn't see  
You saw the best there was in me  
Lifted me up when I couldn't reach  
You gave me faith 'cause you believed  
I'm everything I am  
Because you loved me

I'm everything I am  
Because you loved me


End file.
